On Sept. 22, one of the most caring, boundless, and accomplished human beings I have ever met passed away in Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Morey Lipton was a brilliant physician, who, despite his specialty as a skilled surgeon, insisted that health was a whole patient, whole family, and whole of society affair. Officially, I was never one of his students, but much of the way I practice medicine today came from the good fortune of being around him since childhood.

1) Where health happens: When I was 7 or 8 years old, before MRIs and CT scans existed, I was sent to the hospital because of abdominal pain. As a friend of the family (in Charleston that seems to be almost everyone) Dr. Lipton offered to see me after finishing his patient rounds. He looked at my ch...